Closure panel pull down mechanism

ABSTRACT

A vehicle body compartment is selectively closed by a spring loaded closure panel movable between an open position and a closed position. A latch assembly is mounted on the panel and has a latch bolt spring biased to an unlatched position and normally maintained in the latched position by a key releasable detent lever. A pull down mechanism includes a housing mounted on a vehicle body and a striker mounted thereon by a motorized vertically reciprocating drive unit for moving the striker between extended position and a retracted position. When the panel is moved toward the closed position, the latch bolt engaes with the extended striker to interconnect the panel with the striker. The drive unit is energized and retracts the striker, thereby pulling the panel to its fully closed position. A cam acts between the detent lever of the latch assembly and the housing of the pull down mechanism. The cam acts upon motorized movement of the striker from its retracted position toward its extended position to cam the detent lever to the position releasing the latch bolt independently of key operated release thereof whereby the latch bolt is spring biased to the unlatched position thereby disconnecting the panel from the striker and freeing the panel for spring loaded movement to the open position.

The invention relates to a latch mechanism for a vehicle closure paneland more particularly provides a pull down mechanism for pulling thepanel to the fully closed position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is well known in the prior art to provide a vehicle body closurepanel, such as a rear deck lid, which is hingedly mounted and springloaded for movement to an open position. The latch assembly is mountedon the panel and has a latch bolt which is spring biased to an unlatchedposition. When the deck lid is slammed to a closed position, the latchbolt latches with a striker mounted on the vehicle body to latch thepanel in the closed position. The latch assembly traditionally includesa detent lever which holds the latch bolt in the latched position and akey cylinder for releasing the detent lever from the latch bolt so thatthe latch bolt is spring biased to the unlatched position releasing thepanel for movement to its open position.

It is also well known in the prior art to provide a motorized pull downlatch mechanism for pulling the panel to the fully closed position,thereby eliminating the need for the user to slam the panel. The pulldown mechanism traditionally includes a housing mounted on the vehiclebody and having the striker mounted thereon by a motorized verticallymovable drive unit for movement between an extended position and aretracted position. When the striker is extended, closing movement ofthe panel causes the latch bolt to engage the striker so that the paneland striker are latched together. This engagement closes a switch andenergizes the motorized drive unit to retract the striker and therebypull the panel to the fully closed position. When the panel is returnedto the open position, by operating the key or by remote electricaloperation from inside the passenger compartment, the motorized driveunit reverses and the striker is moved from the retracted position tothe extended position in readiness for subsequent engagement by thelatch bolt upon closing movement of the panel.

The present invention provides a new and improved mechanism for remotelyunlatching the latch bolt from the striker to enable opening movement ofthe panel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A vehicle body compartment is selectively closed by a spring loadedclosure panel movable between an open position and a closed position. Alatch assembly is mounted on the panel and has a latch bolt springbiased to an unlatched position and normally maintained in the latchedposition by a detent lever. A pull down mechanism includes a housingmounted on the vehicle body and having a striker mounted thereon by amotorized vertically reciprocating drive unit for moving the strikerbetween extended and retracted positions. When the panel is moved towardthe closed position, the latch bolt engages with the extended striker tointerconnect the panel with the striker. The driver unit is energizedand retracts the striker, thereby pulling the panel to its fully closedposition. The latch assembly on the panel is unlatched by energizing themotor to move the striker toward the extended position. A cam actsbetween the detent lever of the latch assembly and the housing of thepull down mechanism to cam the detent lever to the position releasingthe latch bolt in response to upward opening movement of the latchassembly by the striker whereby the latch bolt is spring biased tounlatch from the striker and thereby frees the panel for spring loadedmovement to the open position.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention willbecome apparent upon consideration of the specification and the appendeddrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevation view of the compartment panel latch and the pulldown mechanism, shown in the position in which the closure panel hasbeen moved part way toward the closed position so that the latchassembly is engaged with the striker of the pull down unit.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken in the direction of the arrows 2--2 ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a partial view similar to FIG. 1 but showing the pull downmechanism retracting the striker and pulling the panel further towardits closed position.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIGS. 1 and 3 but showing the panel in thelatched and fully closed positions.

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 1 but showing the movement of the panelfrom the FIG. 4 latched position toward the open position and theunlatching of the latch assembly by a cam means and release lever actingbetween the pull down mechanism and the latch assembly.

FIG. 6 is an electrical circuit suited for operating the pull down.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, a deck lid closure panel of a vehicle body isindicated at 10. The panel is hingedly mounted on the vehicle body formovement between open and closed positions with respect to a vehiclecompartment. The panel is spring loaded for movement to an open positionwith respect to the compartment.

FIG. 1 also shows a vehicle body panel 11 which defines the compartmentopening 12 which is selectively closed by the closure panel 10.

The closure panel 10 may be latched in a closed position by a latchassembly generally indicated at 13 which is mounted on the closure panel10. The latch assembly 13 includes a housing 14 having a latch bolt 16mounted thereon by pivot 18. The latch bolt 16 has an opening 20 bywhich the latch bolt 16 is engageable with a striker 22 carried by thebody panel 11 to latch and interconnect the closure panel 10 with thebody panel 11. The latch assembly 13 includes a spring, not shown, whichbiases the latch bolt 16 to an unlatched position shown in FIG. 5. Asshown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the latch assembly 13 includes a detent lever 26mounted on housing 14 by pivot 28 and having a hook 30 which engageswith a hook 32 of the latch bolt 16 to hold the latch bolt 16 in alatched position with respect to the striker 22 as shown in FIG. 1. Aspring 27, shown in FIG. 2, urges detent lever 26 to the position ofFIG. 1.

The latch assembly 13 also includes a key operated lock cylinder 36which is rotatable when a properly bitted key is inserted. The keycylinder carries a cam 38 which, upon rotation of the key cylinder 36,engages a cam follower portion 40 of the detent lever 26 to pivot thedetent lever 26 about its pivot 28 and thereby disengage the detentlever hook 30 from the latch bolt hook 32 so that the spring, not shown,returns the latch bolt 16 to its unlatched position, therebydisconnecting the latch assembly 13 from the striker 22 and enabling theclosure panel 10 to be moved to its open position by the closure panelspring.

Referring again to FIG. 1, a pull down mechanism, generally indicated at44, is provided for moving the closure panel 10 from its partiallyclosed position of FIG. 1 to a fully closed position of FIG. 4. As bestseen in FIG. 1, the striker 22 is mounted on a jackscrew 46. Areversible electric motor 48 is connected with the jackscrew 46 by asuitable mechanism including a drive nut which meshes with the jackscrew46 to raise and lower the jackscrew 46 upon energization of the motor48. The jackscrew 46 is movable in a vertically reciprocable fashionbetween the extended position of FIG. 1 and the retracted position ofFIG. 4. In the retracted position of FIG. 4, the panel 10 is pulled downto its fully closed position in which the closure panel 10 seats upon aweatherstrip carried by the body panel 11.

A mechanism is provided to unlatch the latch assembly 13 from thestriker 22 independently of the operation of the lock cylinder 36discussed hereinbefore. As seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, the unlatchingmechanism includes a release lever 52 which is pivotally mounted on thelatch housing 14 by pivot 54. An upper end 55 of the release lever 52engages against the detent lever 26. A follower link 56 is pivoted tothe lower end of the release lever 52 by pivot 58. A torsion spring 60encircles the pivot pin 58 and acts between the follower link 56 andrelease lever 52 to urge the follower member 56 to a normal positionrelative the release lever 52 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4. The releasemechanism also includes a cam member 64 which is fixedly mounted on thepull down mechanism 44 and extends upwardly therefrom and has a cam 66thereon including an upper cam surface 68 and a lower cam surface 70.

Latch Operation

Referring to FIG. 1, it is seen that the vehicle user has moved theclosure panel 10 downwardly to carry the latch bolt 16 of latch assembly13 into latching engagement with the striker 22. Latch bolt 16 has beenrotated to its latching position in which the striker 22 is captured inthe slot 20 of of latch bolt 16. Hook 30 of detent lever 26 engages withhook 32 of the latch bolt 16 to retain the latch bolt 16 at the latchedposition. Downward retracting movement of the jackscrew 46 by the motor48, pulls the panel 10 downwardly as shown in FIG. 3 and causes thefollower link 56 to wipe over the upper surface 68 of cam member 64 asthe panel 10 is pulled downwardly to the partly closed position as shownin FIG. 3.

FIG. 4 shows the panel 10 pulled all the way down to the closed positionin which the follower link 56 rests against the cam member 64. Thus itis seen that the movement of the panel 10 from the position of FIG. 1toward the fully closed position of FIG. 4 causes the follower link 56to ride over the cam 66 of cam member 64 without influencing the normalspring biased position of the release lever 52.

Referring to FIG. 5, it will be understood that unlatching of the latchassembly 13 from the striker 22 in order to enable opening movement ofthe panel 10, is initiated by reversing the direction of rotation of themotor 48 so that the jackscrew 46 carrying the striker 22 is extendedupwardly from the FIG. 4 position to the FIG. 5 position. The upwardextending movement of the striker 22 raises the latch assembly 13 andclosure panel 10 so that the follower link 56 engages upon the lowersurface 70 of the cam 66 to pivot the release lever 52 about its pivot54 as shown in FIG. 5. This pivoting movement of the release lever 52causes the upper end 56 of the release lever 52 to pivot the detentlever 26 about its pivot 28, thereby disengaging the detent lever hook30 from the fork bolt hook 32. With this disengagement, the latch bolt16 is permitted to begin pivoting about its pivot 18 by its spring tothe phantom line indicated unlatched position of FIG. 5 in which thelatch bolt 16 is disengaged from the striker 22. Thus the springassociated with the hinge of the panel 10 is permitted to move theclosure panel 10 to the fully open position.

Electrical Control of the Motor

Referring to FIG. 6 there is shown electrical circuitry for controllingthe pull down motor 48 in the manner to obtain the pull down andreleasing operations described hereinbefore.

When the panel 10 is moved from the fully open position to the positionof FIG. 1, the contact of the fork bolt 16 with the striker 22 completesan electrical connection as represented by the contacts 16' and 22' inthe electrical circuit of FIG. 6. The circuit also includes a switch 76operated by a lever 78 mounted on the pull down unit 44. Lever 78 isengaged by an upper switch operator 90 and a lower switch operator 91carried by the jackscrew 48 of the striker 22. The switch 76 hascontacts designated DN which are closed when the striker reaches thefully retracted position of FIG. 4 in which the upper switch operator 90has depressed the switch lever 78. The switch 76 also has contactslabeled UP which are closed when the striker reaches the raised positionof FIG. 1. A second switch 84 is operated by a lever 86 which is springbiased to the raised position shown in FIGS. 1, 3 and 5. When theclosure panel reaches the closed position as shown in FIG. 4, the switch84 is open and when the closure panel is in the positions of FIGS. 1, 3and 5, the switch is closed. The electrical circuit also includes anormally open switch 88 mounted remotely from the pull down unit,preferably inside the passenger compartment glove box.

In operation, when the panel 10 is moved from the fully open position tothe position of FIG. 1, the contacts 16' and 22' are closed by theengagement of the latch bolt 16 with the striker 22. This closes thecircuit from battery 92 through the contacts labeled UP of the switch 76to the motor 48, and to the ground 90. Accordingly the motor 48 isenergized in the direction to retract the striker 22 downwardly to pullthe panel 10 from the FIG. 1 position down to the FIG. 3 position andthen to the FIG. 4 fully closed position.

As seen by comparing FIGS. 1 and 4, the closing movement of the panel 10causes the operator 90 carried by striker 22 to engage and move theswitch lever 78 downwardly thereby operating the switch 76 of FIG. 6 toopen the contacts labeled UP so that the connection between battery 92and ground 96 is broken and the motor 48 is stopped. This operation ofthe switch lever 76 simultaneously closes the contacts labeled DN.Furthermore, as seen in comparing FIGS. 3 and 4, the closing movement ofthe closure causes latch assembly 13 to operate the switch lever 86,thereby moving the switch 84 from its closed position shown in FIG. 6 tothe open position.

When the user desires to open the deck lid from inside the passengercompartment, the switch 88 located inside the glove box is momentarilyclosed. This momentary closure of switch 88 allows current to flow frombattery 92 to the DN contacts, and motor 48 to the ground 96. Thisenergizes the motor 48 in the direction to extend the striker 22upwardly as shown in FIG. 5 so that the cam member 64 and release lever52 will function to unlatch the latch assembly 13 as describedhereinbefore. The initial upward movement of the latch assembly 13 withthe closure panel 10 operates the switch lever 86 to move the switch 84to the closed position, thereby continuing the energization of motor 48through ground 98 after the operator releases switch 88. After thestriker 22 has extended to its fully extended position beyond that shownin FIG. 5 to assure unlatching of the latch assembly 13, the switchlever 78 is operated by the lower switch operator 91 to move the switch76 from the DN contacts to the UP contacts, thus resetting the circuitfor subsequently pulling the panel 10 to closed position.

Thus it is seen that the invention provides a new and novel closurepanel pull down mechanism in which a cam acts between the detent leverof the latch assembly and the housing of the pull down mechanism andacts upon motorized movement of the striker from its retracted positiontoward its extended position to cam the detent lever to the positionreleasing the latch bolt whereby the latch bolt is spring biased tounlatch from the striker and thereby frees the panel for spring loadedmovement to the open position.

The embodiment of the invention in which an exclusive property orprivilege is claimed is defined as follows:
 1. In a vehicle bodyincluding a compartment panel spring-loaded for movement between openand closed positions with respect to a compartment defined by a bodypanel, a latch and pull down mechanism comprising:a latch assemblymounted on one of the panels and having a latch bolt spring biased to anunlatched position and a detent lever for holding the latch bolt in thelatched position; a pull down mechanism mounted on the other panel andincluding a striker mounted thereon by a motorized drive unit formovement between an extended position where the striker is engageable bythe latch bolt of the latch assembly to latch the panels together uponpartial closing movement of the closure panel, and a retracted positionin which the closure panel is in the closed position; means adapted tooperate the motorized drive unit to move the striker to retractedposition to pull the closure panel to the closed position in response tolatching engagement between the striker and the latch assembly, remoteopening means actuable by the user for selectively operating the mounteddrive unit to move the striker from the retracted position toward theextended position, and cam means acting in response to motorizedmovement of the striker from its retracted position toward its extendedposition to cam the detent lever to a position releasing the detentlever from the latch bolt whereby the latch bolt is spring biased to theunlatched position thereby disconnecting the latch assembly from thestriker and freeing the compartment panel for spring-loaded movement tothe open position.
 2. In a vehicle body including a compartment panelspring-loaded for movement to an open position and movable to a closedposition, latch and pull down mechanism comprising:a latch assemblymounted on the panel and having a latch bolt spring biased to anunlatched position and a key releasable detent lever for holding thelatch bolt in a latched position; a pull down mechanism including ahousing mounted on the vehicle body and a striker mounted thereon by amotorized vertically reciprocating drive unit for movement between anextended position where the striker is engageable by the latch bolt tolatch the panel to the striker upon partial closing movement of thepanel and a retracted position in which the striker positions the panelin the closed position; remote panel opening means actuable by the userfor selectively energizing the drive unit to move the striker from theretracted position toward the extended position; and cam means actingbetween the detent lever of the latch assembly and the housing, said cammeans coacting therebetween upon motorized movement of the striker fromits retracted position toward its extended position to cam the detentlever to a position releasing the detent lever from the latch boltindependently of the key release thereof whereby the latch bolt isspring biased to the unlatched position thereby disconnecting the panelfrom the striker and freeing the compartment panel for spring-loadedmovement to the open position.
 3. In a vehicle body including acompartment panel spring-loaded for movement to an open position andmovable to a closed position, a latch and pull down mechanismcomprising:a latch assembly mounted on the panel and having a latch boltspring biased to an unlatched position and a key releasable detent leverfor holding the latch bolt in a latched position; a pull down mechanismincluding a housing mounted on the vehicle body and a striker mountedthereon by a motorized vertically reciprocating drive unit for movementbetween an extended position where the striker is engageable by thelatch bolt to latch the panel to the striker upon partial closingmovement of the panel and a retracted position in which the strikerpositions the panel in the closed position; remote panel opening meansactuable by the user for selectively energizing the drive unit to movethe striker from the retracted position toward the extended position;cam means carried by the housing; and a release lever carried by thelatch assembly and adapted to actuate the detent lever and release thelatch bolt to the unlatched position, said release lever operativelyengaging the cam means upon motorized movement of the striker toward itsextended position to thereby actuate the detent lever independently ofthe key release thereof whereby the latch bolt is spring biased to theunlatched position freeing the panel for movement to the open position..Iadd.
 4. In a vehicle body including a compartment panel spring-loadedfor movement between open and closed positions with respect to acompartment defined by a body panel, a latch and pull down mechanismcomprising:a latch assembly mounted on one of the panels and having alatch bolt spring biased to an unlatched position and a detent lever forholding the latch bolt in the latched position; a striker assemblymounted on the other panel and adapted for engagement by the latch boltof the latch assembly to latch the striker assembly to the latchassembly; a pulldown mechanism mounting one of said assemblies on itsassociated panel and having a motorized drive unit for moving said oneassembly between an extended position where the striker and the latchbolt are engaged together upon partial closing movement of the closurepanel, and a retracted position in which the closure panel is in theclosed position; means adapted to operate the motorized drive unit tomove said one assembly to the retracted position to pull the closurepanel to the closed position in response to latching engagement betweenthe striker and the latch bolt; remote opening means actuatable by theuser for selectively operating the motorized drive unit to move said oneassembly from the retracted position toward the extended position; andcam means acting in response to motorized movement of said one assemblyfrom its retracted position toward its extended position to cam thedetent lever to a position releasing the detent lever from the latchbolt whereby the latch bolt is spring biased to the unlatched positionthereby disconnecting the latch assembly from the striker and freeingthe compartment panel for spring-loaded movement to the open position..Iaddend. .Iadd.
 5. The combination of claim 4 in which the pull downmechanism is mounted on a housing and the cam means includes a cammounted on the housing and a release lever associated with the detentlever of the latch assembly and engaging with the cam to act incooperation to release the detent lever. .Iaddend.